Senator Joseph McCarthy’s extensive and relentlessly cruel hearings to uncover supposed communists in the U.S. government and military was finally halted when Joseph Welch asked him during a televised hearing, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” Mr. Welch served in this capacity.

American vice-president

News reporter

Twenty-two

Senator on McCarthy’s investigative committee

Army lawyer. For weeks during televised hearings, McCarthy charged various Army personnel with being communists. Calmly and methodically, Welch dismantled each accusation. On June 9, 1954 when McCarthy turned his focus onto a young lawyer in Welch’s legal firm, Welch asked his famous question. All reporters and other spectators in the Senate Chamber burst into applause.

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